From AT-ATs to iPhones: Early Sketches of 10 Iconic Objects

Our most iconic products don't spring fully formed from their designers' minds. Even Jony Ive had to attack the iPhone more than once (a lot more than once). But the earliest drawings of some now-classic designs help show the process their creators went through to make something recognizable and definitive.

coca-cola bottle, pencil drawing, 1915

Earl R. Dean

When other people started bottling pop made with the syrup Coca-Cola sold, the company realized it needed a standardized look. Earl Dean, of the Root Glass Company, based his (slightly too wide, it turned out) pitch, seen here, on a curving cocoa pod. (He couldn't find a picture of a coca leaf or kola nut.) That swoop became the fundamental unit of Coca-Cola iconography. —Bo Moore

iPHONE, design-concept sketch, date unknown

Jonathan Ive/Apple design team

The iPhone doesn't look like technology. With that polished steel bezel, transparent pane of glass, and solitary button, it looks like art. So when Samsung built the same stuff into its phone, Apple took 'em to court, and these designs were evidence. In his testimony, iPhone designer Christopher Stringer described a tortuous process — his team of a dozen took between 10 and 100 passes just trying to get the home button right, to make it "beautiful." —Jordan Crucchiola

Burj Khalifa, sketch, 2010

Adrian Smith

Tall buildings have a problem: wind. Left unchecked, vortices can build along their height, breaking windows and shaking the superstructure. This architect's sketch shows a spiral-staircase shape that deflects gusts at different angles. That and a Y-shaped floor plan let the building rise 1,000 feet higher than the next tallest. —Jordan Crucchiola

Roomba, patent illustrations, 2002

Joseph Jones

Vacuum cleaners often have trouble getting enough power to the motor, which usually sits at a distance from the ground-level suction. These patent drawing shows the motor and brushes positioned just inches from the ground, creating a vacuum cleaner that needs far less power and allowing the Roomba to be small enough to actually seem cute. Robotic autonomy is just a bonus. —Jordan Crucchiola

cyclotron, Patent Illustration, 1932

Ernest Lawrence

At UC Berkeley, Lawrence dubbed the first particle accelerator his "proton merry-go-round." Just 5 inches in diameter, it propelled protons to an energy level of 80,000 electron volts. The biggest accelerator today, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, is about 8.5 kilometers in diameter and can spin particles to 7 trillion electron volts. —Katie M. Palmer

Atari 2600 Controller, patent illustration, 1977

Kevin P. McKinsey, Gerald R. Aamoth

"It had this iconic look to it, with the red button, and it was kind of weird and awkward to use," says Georgia Tech videogame theorist Ian Bogost. "Everything about it was characteristic of Atari play." Today's multi-button controllers make for a more immersive gaming experience, but this patent drawing for the 2600 still evokes zombified afternoons of Combat. —Bo Moore

670 chair, Schematic, 1971

Charles and Ray Eames

The husband and wife duo didn't sketch; they built. And rebuilt. And carved and re-carved. On the 670, produced since 1956, the arms alone went through 13 versions — each getting closer to what the Eameses called "how it should be-ness." The essence: comfortable, repairable, replaceable, and representative of the materials. Guess they finally got it right. —Jordan Crucchiola

RQ-4 Global Hawk, project proposal, 1994

Alfredo Ramirez

Northrop Grumman's high-altitude, long-endurance UAV has a beluga-whale nose that hardly looks airworthy. But its smooth lines do just fine at a cruising speed of 357 mph. That bulging nose, visible even on this early Grumman proposal, is a radome; it shelters a 4-foot satellite dish with an unobstructed view of the sky and the horizon.—Katie M. Palmer

tesla Coil, patent illustration, 1893

Nikola Tesla

Tesla's invention was capable of sending millions of volts of high-frequency AC electricity through the air to early X-ray machines and electron microscopes. A 5-million-volt coil ran an early particle accelerator. Today? Tesla coils aren't used for much of anything except lightning shows and nerdy music projects. —Katie M. Palmer

Star Wars AT-AT, design concept, 2009

Brian Parrish

As seen in this guideline for toy designers, this walking tank is 2 feet tall — so big that its legs have to bear 9 pounds. But it's a toy, so they still have to be pose-able. Hasbro invented ratchet-toothed, clutched joints that lock into place. —Bo Moore